Monday Morning “Impediment to Productivity” – 20071015

Lets start with Blame. Yes Jools we are all looking at you. Well I am the rest of you will be after you too lose three hours to this “entertaining” little flash game. Now read on.

“This is a very cool jigsaw that gets progressively more difficult as you complete each puzzle.
Easily can be ranked as a terrific time waster. Have fun and many hours entertainment.
Love, Jools
http://www.digyourowngrave.com/white-jigsaw-puzzle/ “

Firstly. It’s all Jools fault. Take it up with her.
Secondly. What a great (and incredibly accurate) domain name
Finally. I always knew I hated jigsaw puzzles.

New York Magazine has put together a list of the ten most incomprehensible Bob Dylan interviews of all time. When this dude wanders off, he really heads out into the great unknown. It’s ironic that after writing some of the greatest songs (poetry) in the culture (Yes we can debate this endlessly) he obviously has all the left over words that he just throws to reporters. What did Bjelke Jo call it. that’s right “Feeding the chooks”. I am rather partial to number 10.
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/10/the_ten_most_incomprehensible.html

Over at Wired magazine’s site. Columnist Clive Thompson has an article that says Google, his PDA, and other toys all enable him to stop remembering things like phone numbers, birthdays, and events. I can relate to this as I live off my PocketPC. So how about you? Your memory wandered off since Google showed up?
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-10/st_thompson

Karl Schroeder has just released his 2001 novel, Ventus under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, meaning that you can download it, share it and copy it as much as you like. (Here’s a review from the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/29/reviews/010429.29scifit.html ) It’s a good read, an alien world, nanobots, a suicidal assassin and one my all time favourite (literary) devices. a demented AI. It’s a ripper read.
http://www.kschroeder.com/Ventus/

While I have you reading off the screen, here is an interesting article. It messed with my head for a bit. “If the computer is a good metaphor for understanding how the mind works, then culture is its software” and we are off and running
http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2007/09/software_of_the_mind.html

The Japanese quest for a clean neat orderly society took another step forward in their quest to get rid of all the grubby humans. Robot drummers. ( we shall skip over the drummer jokes) The robots displayed their prowess on the taiko drums at the Kokura Gion Daiko Festival, this is an event that is around 400 years old and is known for its competition in the traditional percussion. Check out the video and you can work out whether you are impressed or terrified.

Picture this, a few months back, two dudes are spending a Saturday afternoon strolling around a field in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, with their metal detector, when the device goes ballistic. The dudes have hit on a hoard of Viking treasure dating back to the 10th century. The stash, containing silver coins, jewellery, and a gilt silver vessel, came from Afghanistan, Ireland, Russia, and many other places the Viking travelled. Conservative value 750,000 quid. Art value, bloody priceless.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/6906107.stm
and piccies at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6906482.stm

Over at http://www.notdeadyet.com.au/ you will find the an interesting collection this week. There is a more mainstream feel to the acts this week (probably my imagination), have a listen to “Flowers From The Man Who Shot Your Cousin”, it’s a great name and make sure you check out Jools find, the B-Side Players, very cool.